In an effort to reduce my mouse usage as much as possible and mitigate RSI over time, I’ve been using a set of keyboard shortcuts to handle window management. This may be useful for anyone who spends a great deal of time working on a Mac between multiple applications who would like to reduce the need to touch the mouse repeatedly through the day.

I recently 1 moved most of my personal websites to WordPress.com. Considering that I work at Automattic where many of us work on WordPress.com every day, that may seem… obvious. It’s not though, as WordPress.com and other managed hosts serve a particular set of needs for their users. Part of what makes the WordPress ecosystem so great is the variety of options you have depending on your technical knowledge, your budget, and your site’s feature requirements.

The set is beautiful, but a small device doesn’t really do them justice. So, when OS X Yosemite was released this past week, I went back to the source images to see if I could prise out some larger versions that might really show off the transparency effects of the new OS.

Shown here is a sample of what I was able to pull out. I took the largest possible “standard” monitor resolution for each one, though some are smaller due to the field of view of the originals.

Additionally there are some incredible 5k (5120 x 2880) images suitable for the newest 27″ retina iMacs. You can find them for download separately here.

Note: There are some very large originals 500mb+ in size each that could be used to create more of these, even screen-spanning versions, and likely all 5k. My MBPro balked at editing them in any reasonable amount of time, however. :)

This past week, many of my colleagues have been writing about their day to day work at Automattic, where we all work from our respective homes or offices around the world. I decided to film some snippets of my work week as a Happiness Engineer doing live chat and email support to share.

We have the freedom to work where we wish and structure our day in such a way as to best be both productive and in tune with our lives, rather than adhering to a strict schedule.

Pretend you’re moving across the country, taking only what will fit in a 1997 Honda Civic sedan.

I’ve been working my way through this great Post over on Ask MetaFilter that asks, “How do I become more of a minimalist?” bit by bit for awhile now. Like much of MeFi, it’s a trove of interesting links, books and suggestions — if you’re into simplifying, you should check it out.

I’ve always had an anti-clutter bent, but when my wife and I moved into our house, one that’s very open and has more space than we really need, we ended up accumulating things. Both of us are terrible consumers, but with space to fill, well. Add young kids and fighting the fights to avoid having too many things becomes that much harder.

A little over a year ago I snapped out of what I would describe as a multi-year kid-and-new-house-induced haze of accumulation, and began clearing in earnest. At first it was easy — clothes that didn’t fit, baby things, orphaned toys, old textbooks — gone.

Next was the media. I’d already digitized the music years before, but having finally cobbled together a reliable cord-cut system with Plex at its heart, I began to digitize everything else. DVDs were ripped, scrapbooks scanned. The local library found itself with a vast expansion of its film collection. I found myself with more shelf space and less anxiety.

Many of the tools I used to renovate our house have gone to my brother, who is beginning his own kid-and-new-house journey this winter. Hundreds of books and the vast quantities of old cords & electrical detritus symptomatic of a technology junkie have been donated.

My work can be done almost anywhere now, and involves regular travel, which has been a perfect excuse to cut deeper. My wardrobe has been halved — slightly-outdated dress clothes, excess shoes, ties — gone. I plan to halve it again in the coming months.

I always thought that I’d eventually reach a point where it would be painful, but if that point is out there, I have yet to find it. Even more surprising, I can’t think of a single thing I miss. I barely remember the things at all. You might think there would be trade-offs, but you might also be surprised. The process takes on it’s own momentum as having fewer things to tend reinforces the habit.

Each year everyone at Automattic gathers in one location to meet, bond, reflect on the past year, and share new experiences that will keep us connected in the coming year of work. It’s called the Grand Meetup. For a company in which everyone works from their home city rather than a central office, online rather than in person, it’s an especially important time. Continue reading →

On a bit of a whim I bought a domain and threw a WordPress site up for my oldest girl to start mucking about on — she’s 6.The impetus was a conversation we were having about websites, and she said, “maybe I can put that on a website for me”, referring to a drawing I complimented her on. Lightbulb.